The terms of the settlement of the state court lawsuit were confidential, the lawyers said on Tuesday.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement the lawsuit had been ‌amicably resolved ‌and “our focus ⁠remains on building age-appropriate products and parental controls ​that deliver on that promise”.

The lawsuit brought by the plaintiff, known as R.K.C., was selected as the second trial testing claims of individuals who say they were harmed by the design of social media platforms like Meta’s ⁠Instagram, Snap Inc’s Snapchat and ByteDance’s TikTok. ‌

The ​trial was slated to go ahead against Meta, Snap and TikTok ​in July.

More than ‌3300 lawsuits involving addiction claims against social media companies are pending ​in California state court. Another 2600 cases brought by individuals, school districts, municipalities and states are pending in California federal court. 

The first ​trial, ​which ended in March, ​was in the case of a woman ‌who said she became addicted to Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram at a young age because of their attention-grabbing design.

In the civil suit brought by the now-20-year-old woman, known in court only as Kaley GM, much of the month-long trial focused on internal documents in which employees at Meta and Google appeared to acknowledge their platforms were addictive and targeted children.

In one message, according to Courthouse News Service, an Instagram employee wrote: “We’re basically pushers … We’re causing reward deficit disorder, because people are binging on Instagram so much they can’t feel the reward.”

A YouTube strategy memo similarly stated: “If we want to win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens.”

Meta argued Kaley’s mental health struggles stemmed from other causes, including a learning disability and a difficult home life. 

“If you took Instagram away, would anything be different?” Meta’s attorney, Paul Schmidt, asked jurors in closing arguments. “That’s the core question in this case.”

A jury found the companies negligent and ordered Meta to pay $US4.2 million in damages ​and Google to pay $US1.8 million.

“For years, social media companies have profited from targeting children while concealing their addictive and dangerous design features,” the plaintiff’s attorneys said in a joint written statement.  

“Today’s verdict is a referendum – from a jury, to an entire industry – that accountability.”

Earlier this month, the judge rejected ​the companies’ bid to ⁠set aside that verdict.

In the Kaley case, plaintiff’s attorney Mark Lanier said that only a gargantuan award would be enough to adequately punish Google and Facebook, given their total equity worth US$415 billion and $217 billion, respectively.

“These companies are not just the wealthiest, these companies are the most influential and most powerful,” Lanier told the jurors.

Though he did not ask for an exact amount, he suggested that the companies wouldn’t even notice a missing $8 or 10 billion. “You’ve got to talk to Meta in Meta money,” he added.

(with AAP)

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